A few weeks ago I was at the dealership waiting for a loaner to come. While I was waiting I overheard a service advisor on the phone with a customer that was complaining that her battery was dead after having left her car sitting in the garage for three weeks while she was on vaycay. The SA asked her; "where did you leave all the FOBS?" And then went on to explain that if you leave your FOBs within 20 feet of the car when it's not in use the car will periodically do some self diagnostics as it thinks you're about to get in it to drive off. Once he got off the phone I asked him what to do in to prevent these unnecessary checks and he said "just try to store the keys more than 20 feet away from the car when you're not using it. If you're driving it every few hours on a daily basis it's not too big of a deal but if you are gong away and the car is gonna sit unused for days on end either take the batteries out of the FOBS or store ALL of them more than 20 feet away to keep the car from doing its checks."

I totally hear you... My house is a 1687 Square foot town home with a single car garage and when the rover is in the garage, I keep the FOB next to the farthest wall I can find.... Not a huge deal but kinda funny the lengths we have to go to to keep these "smart" cars from staying on all the time.

Tue Feb 02 2016 5:37pm

udash

Member Since: 16 Oct 2009
Location: manchester
Posts: 179

smart key inside a metal container will prevent all communications, so if you put it in a metal tin for example (with lid closed) then you can ignore the 20 feet clearance.